One of the most relevant skills required to fly advanced airliners in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is mastering the autopilot, especially the highly automated one in Airbus aircraft like the A320 and the A321.
It’s also one of the most complex topics that is often beyond the reach of beginners who are approaching the simulator for the first time, especially due to the lack of dedicated tutorials within the simulator.
The video below will teach you the basics of the Airbus autopilot, mostly focusing on the A320neo and A321LR (which work exactly in the same way), on top of some advanced concepts like autolands.
It starts after you have created your flight plan (you can learn how to do that in our previous video guide), and hold your hand through the startup procedure, the programming of the flight computer, and all phases of flight, all the way to landing.
IMPORTANT: A point that may not be super-clear in the video is that you need to set your throttle/ thrust levers in the “FLX-MCT” position when taking off, and then pull them back to the “CL” position when it’s indicated on the screen. You’ll then leave the throttle in the CLB position for the whole flight until you pull it to idle on landing. Having your throttle in the CL position during all phases of flight besides takeoff and landing is critical for the autothrust to work correctly.
Without further ado, you can watch the video below. As usual, subscribing to our growing YouTube channel will ensure that you won’t miss further videos and coverage. If you have any doubts or questions, please ask in the comments of the video, and we’ll answer as quickly as possible.
Update: we also published a second video focusing on how to use the throttles to operate the throttles on Airbus Aircraft. This is critical information to use the advanced AutoThrust system that is required for the autopilot to function correctly.
You can watch it below.
If you have trouble making the “Init Request” option appear on the MCDU, you can find a quick fix in this video.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is available for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5. If you’d like to learn more, you can check out our recent interview with Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann.
If you’d like to read more flight simulation news, you can find plenty in our previous roundup article from yesterday.
If you want to go further back, we have a handy overview video of the major flight simulation news in the past week. You can watch it below. As usual, leaving a like and a comment and subscribing to our growing YouTube channel is extremely helpful.
